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Machete-wielding thieves raid Cwmbran store

Newsagent Simon Davies from Cwmbran was robbed at knifepoint (4098135)

SHOP WORKER: Simon Davies from Cwmbran was robbed

Newsagent Simon Davies from Cwmbran was robbed at knifepoint (4098127)

Pictured is AN Barter's newsagents and off license along Llantarnam Road in Cwmbran, after staff were subjected to robbery by knifepoint and made off with unkown quantities of cash. (4077241)

AN Barter's newsagents and off license along Llantarnam Road in Cwmbran, after staff were subjected to robbery by knifepoint and made off with unkown quantities of cash. Pictured is the till area where a member of staff was held at knife point to han

THIEVES armed with a machete robbed a Cwmbran newsagents on Monday night, making away with cigarettes and money from the till.

Two men, who had covered their faces, walked up to the till at Barter’s newsagent’s on Llantarnam Road at about 9.50pm as worker Simon Davies was getting ready to shut the shop at 10pm.

Mr Davies, 27, said one of the men, who he described as a “big guy”, waved a ten inch machete towards him and became increasingly aggressive as the robbery went on.

When the robbers first entered the shop, the armed man leant over the counter but after a few minutes, he stood next to Mr Davies, shouting and swearing, demanding that he gave him money more quickly and touched the worker’s side with the weapon.

The shop assistant, who has worked at the store since last November, was uninjured but said he remained shaken up by what had happened.

He said: “I thought customers were paying a trick on me at first. I didn’t think it was real. I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.

“It has affected me. One minute I’m fine but another I feel like a mess”

The armed man was described as wearing sunglasses and a balaclava and speaking with a local accent, although Mr Davies said he thought the other man might have been armed too.

They spilt a number of the cigarette packets they had taken on the floor in front of the kiosk and outside the shop as they made their getaway on foot.

But they failed to take a St David’s Hospice collection tin that was on the till last night. Anyone with any information about the robbery are asked to contact Gwent Police on 101 quoting log number 525 17/2/2014.